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Aphrodesia
Aphrodisia Desire is a powerful thing. While the sexual applications of this art are obvious, its practice is far more useful than simple physical gratification. Otherwise rational people can be made to spend their life savings on trash, and those who are otherwise apathetic can be made to treasure an item forever. And, of course, there is sex. This art was taught to a few satyrs in the Middle Ages; some old goats scorn it as "false emotion," but most who see the power's effects figure it is a logical outgrowth of the Song of Pan. The mer are historically famous for using this Art in conjunction with calling upon the Wyrd, in order to lure sailors off the decks of ships and into their clutches. The Art is at its most powerful when its wielder uses each power one by one, subtly building on the strength of the target's desire, until the target has convinced himself that his desire is not only natureal, but not at all irrational. Aphrodisia can be resisted by Willpower, although the roll to resist is automatic and unconscious; the person affected shouldn't automatically know that a cantrip is at work. The number of successes the caster scores determines just how many successes are necessary for the onlooker's Willpower roll to be able to ignore the cantrip's effects. To shrug off the cantrip, the witness must score the caster's number of successes plus one. Attribute: Charisma · Fancy (Blood-Dimmed Tides, pg. 77) This cantrip gets someone to pleasantly notice something they would not have ordinarily noticed. Something of a fae guarantee of a good first impression, it makes a face stand out of a crowd or one particular item from a shopkeeper's cart leap to the eye. Of course, there's no guarantee that the item is a sure sale, or that the face in the crowd is the duke's love for life, but it does serve as the proverbial "foot in the door." System: The Realm determines just who or what gets noticed, rather than who does the noticing. As a result, the changeling must time the use of the cantrip carefully if he doesn't want any and all onlookers to be affected. Of course, sometimes it's appropriate to affect a group, particularly at court functions. Fancy can't be used to cancel out supernatural powers of stealth; although it could call attention to a sluagh lurking in the bushes (and the sluagh would at least get the benefit of a good first impression), it couldn't point out the same sluagh if he was obscured by Veiled Eyes. ·· Yearn (Blood-Dimmed Tides, pg. 77) This cantrip places a quick flash of desire in a target's mind, most likely when he is thinking about something else. The target suddenly feels a need for whatever is placed inside his mind. System: The Realm determines who is affected; use of the Time Realm can plant a suggestion in a target's mind to be "set off" later. This is certainly one way of ensuring your date of last evening calls you again... The object of the target's affections need not be present at the time of the cantrip's casting, but he must be familiar with it. A Changeling can't use Yearn to make a person long for something he's only vaguely familiar with, or has seen but never paid all that much attention to. The object must stand out in his mind somehow, even if it's as vague as "that beautiful girl I saw in the window of Cafe Au Lait." ··· Covet (Blood-Dimmed Tides, pg. 77) A more powerful version of Yearn, this cantrip causes the target to begin obsessing over the object of his affections. While the victim is still rational, her object of desire moves up a few rungs on the victim's priorities. She begins to lose sleep, and will find herself absently thinking about the object of her attention at peculiar times. System: The Realm determines who can be affected by this cantrip. Covet lasts for about a day's time. ···· Crave (Blood-Dimmed Tides, pg. 77) The victim is no longer rational, and the object of his desire is his top priority. He will do just about anything that does not jeopardize himself, his closest friend, or the object of his affections to be close to what he desires. System: The Realm, once more, determines who the caster can affect. the effects of crave last for about a scene's time. ····· Need (Blood-Dimmed Tides, pg. 77) At this stage of desire, sanity goes right out the window. The victim will leap overboard to drown with the object of this affections, if that's what it takes. He's completely obsessed, and has trouble even so much as focusing on anything else. This person is irrational and dangerous, and not above destroying the object of his affections to prevent others from getting it. System: Need lasts for a scene. The Realm, yet again, determines who the caster can affect.